From the 23rd to the 26th of May 2023, the third workshop was organized to train magistrates on the forestry laws at Hotel Franco for the fight against illegal logging in Cameroon sponsored by the US Department of Justice. it was attended to by 47 magistrates, 11 Forest administrative staff from MINFOF, AADA , FLAG , the World resource institute, the US Forest Service, and the US Department of Justice represented by Madam Elinor Colbourn and the Minster Delegate Mr. Jean de Dieu Momo. During the workshop, various aspects were discussed such as a General overview of Illegal Forest exploitation, its causes, and the numerous effect it has caused both on us and the forest in general. It looked at the investigation techniques on how to tackle forestry crimes and the procedures to be used to bring out illegal foresters to justice. it looked at an overview of the law enforcement regime against illegal logging and associated trade in Cameroon, looking at the competent jurisdictions, Legal proceedings, parties to the proceedings, collection, and administration of evidence, remedies, and much more.
We Review the main legal instruments applicable to the repression of illegal logging and associated trade, Highlighted the different stages of the procedure to be followed and the steps to be taken, Highlighted the procedural particularities provided for in the repression of illegal logging, Encourage reflection on the real effectiveness of the applicable texts. The workshop was very rich and educative, there were several deliberations that were carried out between the teams present there and finally it ended with several case studies to put more light on the matter at hand.
